Tech N9ne protégé and longtime collaborator, Stevie Stone, is preparing for the release of his Strange Music debut album, ‘Rollin’ Stone’. Due in stores June 12th, the collection features the singles ‘808 Bendin’, ‘Get Buck’ and ‘Oneness’. Guests on the album include Tech N9ne, Yelawolf, Krizz Kaliko, Hopsin and reggae star Peter “Peetah” Morgan of Morgan Heritage.

Tech N9ne actually attended Stevie Stone’s first live performance. “I knew he was dope back then,” Tech says. Tech and Stone met after that show several years ago and started developing a relationship. Tech and Stone’s bond led to Stone signing with Strange Music in 2011. “I’m home,” Stone says. “It’s something I’ve been wanting for a long time.”

As he prepares for the release of ‘Rollin’ Stone’, Stevie Stone is currently on tour with Tech N9ne, MGK and Krizz Kaliko as part of the groundbreaking “Hostile Takeover 2012” Tour, which includes 90 shows in 99 days, making it the longest consecutive tour in rap history.

Tech N9ne spoke with HipHop DX about the surprise success of his ‘Klusterfuk’ EP that hit #1 on Billboard’s Independent chart without his label Strange Music spending anything marketing the release, while the artist himself only took four days to create the album.

“We put no promotion out or nothing. It was just on our website and on iTunes. Then the motherfu**er came out the first week and it was #1 [Independent] record in the country,” the 40-year-old said. “We had no idea. No promotion whatsoever. Nothing. Just our fans and boom, Klusterfuk is coming. We did nothing. We did nothing in the magazines how we usually do.”

Vanilla Ice gave a shout-out to Tech N9ne during annual Gathering of the Juggalos (GOTJ) festival in Cave-In-Rock, Illinois. “This is the Ice Man, kicking like Jackie Chan, telling him to take a stand even though I’m contraband. I’m saying what’s up man, Tech N9ne.” Watch the message below.

Swollen Members are out with the video to their new single ‘Bollywood Chick’, featuring Tech N9ne & Tre Nyce, off the Canadian hip hop group’s fifth full-length album ‘Armed To the Teeth’, out now on Suburban Noize. Watch the Matt Alonzo directed video below.

Kansas City native Tech N9ne escaped serious injury on Wednesday morning (March 23), while traveling in his 15-passsenger van, when the vehicle lost control and rolled several times. The full article at ballerstatus.net has since been removed or relocated.

KC isn’t exactly the place where you’d expect to find a lyrical genius, but rest assured, KC native Tech N9ne is just that. His albums “Anghellic” and “Absolute Power” have garnered him an almost cult-like following and in a recent interview with ReactMag.com he talked about that following, his past addictions, and why he feels the industry is a bunch of punks. Read the extremely personal and revealing interview here.

Andrew Miller of The Pitch profiled the efforts of Tech N9ne to overcome the payola that is the music industry by launching his Fu** the Industry campaign that allowed web surfers to download his album for free. Manager Travis O’Guin explained how his marketing effort has worked, “The first week, there were 50,000 downloads. Record sales also went up, and they’ve continued to climb.” The continued exposure, he hopes, will force radio to play Tech’s records. “If they play us and we didn’t pay, we’ve won,” he explained.

M.S.C. Music & Entertainment, Strange Music and Tech N9ne have decided it is time to change the music industry. The industry as we know it is close to dead. The major labels would like to blame you, the consumer, for the decline in record sales. This is a typical reaction for the major labels because they are not willing to take responsibility for putting out crap music. The reality is that file sharing has given you, the fan, an opportunity to sample the music before wasting your hard earned money on lousy records. The internet has given music buyers your own personal listening station at home and the major labels can no longer fool the consumer. They don’t want you to sample their music because they know that if the fans realize that there are only 2 good songs on a record, you will not buy it. Download the new Tech N9ne album and learn more about the F.T.I. [Fu** The Industry] Movement therealtechn9ne.com.